Just when you think you’ve heard of the most horrific act of violence, up comes another unconscionable act of the ungodly kind. Columbine, Aurora, the Colorado movie theater shooting and now to the list of unimaginable horror, the slaying of 20 innocent children in Connecticut, the latter 2 incidents, an AR-15 was used(the gun in the photo). Ironically the Connecticut massacre took place on the 14th of December 2012, almost 221 years to the day that the 2nd amendment (the rite to bear arms) was introduced on December 15, 1791. Which begs the question ‘is it necessary to own an assault weapon of any kind…anywhere?

According to Reuters, ‘the United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world’, 270 million of the world’s 875 million ‘known‘ firearms are owned by US citizens. Approximately 8 million new guns are made each year of which 4.5 million are purchased, guess where?…the USA ofcourse, and their justification is the 2nd amendment of their constitution. When does freedom of choice and expression cross the threshold into anarchy and chaos?

Well let’s examine the 2nd amendment, shall we…?

Here are some of the justifications for the 2nd amendment quoted from a Wikipedia article:

deterring tyrannical government;

repelling invasion;

suppressing insurrection;

facilitating a natural right of self-defense;

participating in law enforcement;

enabling the people to organize a militia system.

These views might have been pertinent in the 1790’s, but it has no place in modern society. Newsflash America, the British militia is not attacking. How can you have a population better armed than your police? An what does Teflon do for a police officer when they are confronted close range with an AK-47? The consequences are deadly. Well, it is easy to criticize but what would be my solution?

Gun control reform:

a complete ban on the purchase and importation of assault weapons

just like a driver’s license, the ownership of a gun is a privilege not a right, therefore any person with a criminal record, psychiatric history, conviction of any sort (gun related or not) should be precluded from owning a firearm

to the latter point, if extenuating circumstances can be determined, ownership/eligibility can be re-established

uphold ‘the castle law‘, which essentially is that ‘ a man’s home is his castle‘ and he has the right to defend it

special licenses for people to have a gun in the home, and a separate license for those who may need to carry one, such as security personnel, cops, business owners in high risk situations(e.g. a jewelry store owner, etc), or an individual registered to a gun club or shooting range.

other than security, and law enforcement individuals, the carrying of a firearm should be that the gun is empty during transport

mandatory psychological evaluations, criminal back ground check, not just a driver’s license in order to qualify

and yearly license renewal and disclosure of the firearm, failure to register it yearly will result in criminal prosecution ( the simple premise of “where is your firearm?”/ one should be able to account for it at all times.)

and one shouldn’t be able to resell a firearm, there should be a mandatory law that only registered gun retailers/resellers should be able sell firearms, therefore an individual wanting to sell his/her firearm would be compensated once their firearm had been sold.

and strict records must be kept by gun retailers/resellers so that the path of the gun can always be traced by the authorities

I heard a good joke the other day, a group of guys were hanging out at the bowling alley, and after the game one of the guys asked ‘hey fellas, who sleeps around, lies on their backs with their two legs in the air and makes money?’ A couple of guys chimed in, almost in sync, ‘That’s easy…a prostitute!’ to which most of the guys agreed, except one, He said ‘That sounds like my oldest son’. So one guy asked him what he meant by that. He said ‘My son sleeps around noon, lies on the couch on his back all day with his two legs in the air on the arm rest, and he makes easy money, he doesn’t even go out to work, he just simply asks mom and dad, ‘can I get 20 bucks?’

Now this might be a harsh analogy, but I gotta tell ya, its damn near accurate for most dad’s with kids 18 or older, even me. My son doesn’t want to work, he doesn’t want to go to school, he just wants to get high at night or day, text, play Playstation and Xbox, hang out with his friends and hit his mom up for money, eat us out of house and home, and never contribute anything to the home except attitude. Sadly, but somewhat comforting…I’m not alone.

One guy at work told me about his step son, and that he thinks his wife enables his behavior. By not telling him to go back to school, find a job or human beings aren’t meant to live in their own filth, clean your room! I would agree with my friend, he said she even comes to her son’s defense if the step dad gets on his case. she claims that her son is no longer a baby, so stop parenting him and be his friend! Well…can I tell you, that it is hard to be friends with a bum, very hard, even if he is your own flesh and blood. And by the way, since he is no longer a baby, why are you still breast-feeding him at 20 years old?!

Dads have to make tough choices no matter how unpopular, even to the point of your kids utter hatred and disregard for your existence. For me, I am Sponge bob square dad and i don’t apologize for being disgusted with a room that smells like a cesspool, for God’s sake, this is our home! I’m not renting it, I pay a mortgage, your mom works for a mere pittance to help make ends meet, every dime we make supports our home, so when I see a bedroom that looks like if Hurricane Katrina hit it, clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes, a stench so unbearable you would swear it was manure, “I should be his friend?!” How does one befriend a person who chooses to live like that? Unkempt hair, belligerent attitude, pants so low their damn near their ankles, no respect for authority and even less for their elders, this so typifies this modern generation.

Well I told my freind what I would tell my wife…’Honey, I am his father, I can’t be his friend’, it is my job to say the things he doesn’t want to hear, its better to hear it from me than a stranger or worse yet…a cop, or magistrate, it is my job to worry that if he has no discernible skills, no education what kind of trouble he can get into, and if parents are prepared to look the other way, we are not only enabling them, we are disabling them as well. What happens to our kids if we die? Where is the room and board then? What will they have to do to survive?

Old folks have a saying that ‘sound travels slowly‘, now from a scientific perspective, it is simply not true (sound travels at approximately 770 miles per hour), but from a life lesson perspective, it is so true, because your parents or guardian, or any one looking out for you would tell you something for your own good today, and sometimes you don’t hear what they’ve said till years later, or sometimes you never hear at all, because it was too late.

I say this with out spitting in the face of GOD; I for one am not looking forward to living a long life in a world run by this generation. I grew up revering and respecting my elders, I wanted to help my mom when i was growing up, not get a hand out from her, a man should have a sense of pride, it essentially is what a man’s supposed to be. One wishes that the sins of the father shall not be re-visited upon the son but rather that they be spared the agony, that is why fathers have to be the A-holes. We have all made mistakes in our lives and we want our kids to avoid our pitfalls, so they may not want to hear this, but we ought to be on them like white on rice till the message gets thru, though at the rate this generation is going, we would sooner see the grave, than their return to civility.

As for drugs, even marijuana (the recreational drug of choice), my stance is clear, if you are doing drugs of any kind, you have to be getting it from somewhere. Which means directly you are in contact with a drug dealer, which means by extension, your unsuspecting ‘drug free family’ are inadvertently tethered to your illicit association. Which brings me to the next set of questions, since our kids don’t work, where are they getting the drug money from? Are they selling drugs to support their own habits? Are they doing sex acts for it? What are they doing with your lives?

My favorite line from enabling parents is ‘We were once young too!’ well you know what honey, don’t you think we (the parents) should be the ones to tell our kids ‘don’t take that path?!’ If I was a car thief in my youth should I encourage my kid to do the same and find out the consequences on his own? I don’t know about you, but if I am headed south, and someone headed north stops me and says, ‘hey mister, don’t go that way, the sea wall has given way and the water is rising fast, you won’t make it!’ Do I say, ‘thanks for your concern but I want to see for myself’, or do I just turn round and head north? Or maybe I am the stranger headed north, am I not supposed to warn southern bound people of impending danger? or should I just let them meet their impending doom? This is our kids we’re talking about, they might be a generation of prostitutes, but they are our prostitutes! high five for Tough love!

I’ve had it with insurance companies, the biggest legal criminal enterprise in the world, and we can’t do anything about it. I for one have a perfect driving record, driving over ten years, no accidents, no claims, no tickets (parking doesn’t count), but yet my insurance keeps going up every year.

I called the criminals to find out what the hell is going on!! To find out that even with my baron record, and all the applied discounts, my premium still went up by $25 per month due to the fact that there are a lot of claims in my area. What in the world does the indiscretion of my neighbors have to do with me?! I didn’t write off my car to get an insurance pay out, my car hasn’t been stolen or vandalized, I haven’t gone to a body shop asked them to claim for major damage repair then split the insurance payout for what was actually a small fender bender. What benefit do I get for being a responsible driver? Is this how the law repays it’s conscientious citizens?

And where is the bastard that we voted for and put in office to fight on our behalf? Why isn’t that filthy politician championing the consumer protection cause? I’ll tell you why, because he’s probably getting a check or campaign contribution on the side for vetoing the bill every time it comes up.

(True story) I was talking with a young lady who said to me, her step dad lives in Toronto, but he has family in Quebec, so he uses their address and pays $700 bucks a year. So I corrected her and said ‘you mean $700 per month?’ but she remained adamant that she meant ‘per year’. In disbelief I decided to test out her statement, I went online, gave a fake name, with a fake Quebec address but kept all other info such as my sex, age, type and year of car, use of vehicle (non commercial), distance to work (oneway), no claims, no cancellations, no violations etc. And lo and behold when the insurance company emailed my quote it was for a mere $682.00 bucks per year. Yes, I said year! I was in such disbelief that I forwarded my quote to guys at work, who freaked.

In Ontario (good drivers), we’re paying upwards of $200 per month (a difference of about $1718 at the very least compared to that insanely low quote). One guy suggested a whole group of guys pitch in to rent a cheap room in Quebec, use the address and get cheap insurance. Whether or not he was serious, I have no clue, but I can say that I was tempted, but if something happens (God forbid), the scam would come crashing down on all of us, and I for one have never been to jail and don’t intend to go there either. Last thing I need is to have cops at my door with an arrest warrant for insurance fraud.

Just like everyone else on earth I have needs, I need to eat, breathe, and I need to keep my wife happy, so that I can live in peace. I also have wants, I want to win the lottery, I want Halle Berry to find me desirable, but one thing I know more than anything else is that I don’t need and sure as hell don’t want to see a guy wearing his pants so low that I can see male ass cleavage (emphasis here on male, cause if a woman is revealing any kind of cleavage, I have no issues with that…absolutely none!).

Who would have thought that a hideous trend, which started in prison could have spawned and infected not just a generation, but an entire generation. There was once a color, class and creed stereo type associated with this style, now, everyone’s in on it.

Prison officials banned the wearing of belts, because inmates would make weapons with the buckle or use the strap itself to strangle someone, or commit suicide by hanging. So a guy might have gone jail, the prison issue pants might have been a little snug initially, but then as guys work out(as they often do in prison), or aren’t privy to beer and their choice of rich robust repast, they would lose weight, so without the belt and compliments of our mutual acquaintance gravity, the pants would migrate from the waistline downward.

In its infancy, mainly inner city youth of Black and Hispanic persuasion in the US, were wearing their pants like that. Now I see well to white kids, Asian even Indian kids on the band-wagon (the latter 2 very socially conservative and religious cultures). So that got me to thinking back in our respective days were we any better than the now generation.

I was born in Montreal to middle class, well-educated parents in 1965. Though I existed, I was far too young to be smitten by the hippie movement, I wasn’t a stoner in my teen years and I came up during the disco era, roller skating disco rinks, the remnants of the late 70’s bell bottom pants and platform shoes still fashionable but trending down towards the 80’s. I remember wearing Converse and Pro Keds (those multi colored canvas shoes), you would have a red pair and a blue pair for e.g. and wear left foot red, right foot blue for fun (nowadays you wear red or blue in certain areas in the US and you might lose your life for being mistaken for a Crip or Blood). Disco dancing, popping and locking, break dancing, that was the in thing. I am 46 years old and have never touched a gun, I have no criminal record, never been to jail (that goes without saying). If being dull is what I am…I like it!!

So, for those parents who are going through the agony of this fashion trend that has lingered far too long, let me offer you words of encouragement, this is hopefully a passing phase, if it isn’t, then here is a desperation tac-tic and social experiment you could try. Start texting during dinner, or at any inappropriate time like church. Learn all the slang and acronyms…, yes even the profane ones (WTF) and use it in your conversations with them, and the Pièce de résistance…, befriend the parents of your kids best friends, and every weekend all of you go to your kids favorite hang out spots, like the mall or cinema, the arcade (where ev) dressed just like they are, pants sagging, ass cleavage clearly visible from space. That may do the trick. Then again you might like it, who knows?

And finally to our kids, if we have to see your skivvies, for heaven’s sake man, make sure they don’t have skid marks in them, or at least wear Fruit of the loom or Hanes, (have some class! )

We take alot of criticism, we are often the butt of unflattering jokes and ridicule, mostly at the hands of the country we revere most (America). Our economy is so dependent on the US, that if they go down, guess who’ll be riding shot gun ?! You want proof of how closely tethered we are to the US?…then take a look at the following illustration that shows major Canadian companies as we know it, not owned or controlled by Canadian businesses:

Major corporations in Canada owned and controlled by foreign companies

Now I for one am glad that foreign companies want to invest in Canada, my question simply is where are our companies? Well considering popular companies like Tim Hortons for e.g. was sold to Wendy’s international, and CN rail is almost 67% US owned, it just begs the question what about us? To get an in depth view of this point, follow the link and read more!

This is an election year in the US, and whether we we wish to admit it or not, we have a vested interest in who wins the white house, God help Canada if we get another Bush/Cheney duo (easily the most arrogant presidency in history). So start watching CNN, do some research on Romney and his running mate (Paul Ryan), find out what policies are at the core of their campaign and hope that if Obama is to be a one term president, hopefully a president Romney won’t shred the Canadian interests to bits. i for one would like to know where does he stand on NAFTA, issues such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran North Korea and more, for Canada would like to avoid at all cost the ensuing mélée brought on by egotistical testosterone driven decisions, that could lead to a further escalation of war, and from our stand point, more Canadian soldiers lost.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia that put’s in perspective what is truly at stake if the wrong person gets into power in the US or Canada.

Canadian military deaths in Afghanistan

Since February 2002, 158 Canadian soldiers have died in the war in Afghanistan or in support of the war. Of these, 123 were due to hostile circumstances, including 95 due to improvised explosive devices (IED) or landmines, 21 due to rocket-propelled grenade, small arms or mortar fire, 11 due to suicide bomb attacks, and one died falling from a high ground position on a cliff during a combat operation that involved firefight. An additional 22 soldiers have died in accidents or other non-combat circumstances; 7 due to “friendly fire“, 6 in vehicle accidents, two in an accidental helicopter crash, 2 from accidental falls, 2 from accidental gunshots, 1 suicide death and 2 unspecified non-combat-related deaths in country. Additionally, one unspecified non-combat-related death occurred at a support base in the Persian Gulf. Canada has suffered the third-highest absolute number of deaths of any nation among the foreign military participants, and the highest casualties per capita of all coalition members since the beginning of the war. More than 2000 soldiers were injured during the war between April 2002 to December 2011. 635 soldiers were injured in action while 1412 were injured in patrol or non combat situation.”

They are our neighbors, though from their stand point that sentiment is not reciprocated. We are treated like the little brother that big brother doesn’t want around unless he needs a favor, yet as painful as it is to admit, we can learn alot from them. They stand up for their rights, they speak out (often out of turn) but nonetheless one has to respect a nation that won’t lay down and be walked all over. That’s what we Canadians need to do, if you need practice in belligerence, lets start small, how about speaking out to building contractors that rip us off, mechanics, plumbers, electricians who hand you a bill so exorbitant for the simplest of jobs, and once you start becoming proficient at ripping asses, let’s upgrade to the members of parliament, our municipal leaders, government at every level will learn that we are tired of bowing down, we won’t genuflect anymore. though you may be in power, we hold the ultimate power…that of the ballot.

are you a proud Canadian? if the answers’ yes then great, but here’s a quick test. what kind of car do you drive? if you are driving one of the following cars then you are supporting Canada, sadly none of the following are indigenous to Canada, but operating here is a close second:

if you’re not driving one of the above cars…shame on you! just kidding, you have the right to choose whatever you want, next time just want Canadian. let’s dissect our music industry for example, If we are so proud, how come our Canadian top twenty chart is 90% foreign artists (mainly USA)? Don’t we have great bands and artists as well? Besides Biebs and Drake, who else do we get behind? I for one am sick of following America’s lead, you can bet there’s was an American idol, there was bound to be a Canadian idol, which flopped by the way, and guess which Idol is still thriving…? yep! American all the way. America’s got talent…Canada’s got talent, So you think you can dance…well you get the drift.

I like America, but what about us. I keep hearing fellow canucks say that Canadian sports teams suck, you know what really sucks? our government, they don’t do nearly enough to nurture athletics, and sports in Canada, then we wonder why America, China, Russia (to name a few) excel in sports, the Chinese baby comes out of the womb and straight into the floor exercise, when the doctor slaps the Russian baby’s buttock, it’s just a reminder, maintain posture on that balance beam lad, and America’s desire to dominate everything, will put money into getting the best to become the best, it’s that simple.

I just recently visited some family south of the stripe, and on my way back my tank was near empty, so i filled up state side. imagine my shock when 38 bucks filled my tank, and don’t say 38 US, last time i checked the loonie was on par. so what if gas is cheaper there?…we are the largest exporter of oil to the USA, that’s so what – Canada accounts for as much as 20% of the imported variety to our southern neighbors, followed by Saudi Arabia at roughly 15%, Mexico comes in third @ 12% of imports. rounded out by Venezuela and Nigeria. How are we the largest importer of oil to the USA, who incidentally is the largest consumer of oil and oil based products on earth, but yet we pay an arm and 2 legs more for gas? can someone explain that to me?

Are you fed up of US basketball players coming to the Raptors, getting their feet wet in the NBA and then moving on to bigger and better things? don’t get me started on Canadian Hockey teams coming up short every year. I know guys who are Canadian born who support US teams over any of our Canadian teams. is that who we are? we need to fuel that pride, start pushing Canada and everything canuckian. We seem to be supporting everyone else but our own, and that’s gotta change!

tune in for the conclusion, and in the meantime give me some feedback at smokinjamprod@gmail.com